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by a great gulf, or obliged to introduce alien or unnecclTary 

 ideas, in order to fquare his matter with his meafure, and pre- 

 ferve the preconceived divifion of his poem into partitions of a 

 certain unvarying length. The ftanza is commenfnrate to the 

 fenfe, and exhibits nothing redundant, nothing incoherent or 

 disjointed ; the thought occupies juft as much room as it de- 

 ferves, and no more, while the poet has it in his power, to ex- 

 prefs it, as fully, or as concifcly as he thinks proper. 



Secondly. Add to this, that the irregular ode requires no- 

 fupernumerary or expletive epithets to eke out lines, none of 

 thofe unmeaning fubfervient lines, that are introduced merely to 

 eke out ftanzas, and of which fome of our modern regular odes 

 exhibit fuch melancholy inftances ; in fhott, the irregular ode is 

 not obliged to facrifice a juft arrangement, clear expreffion, or 

 harmonious verfificalion, to a chimerical and pedantic regularity, 

 which has no foundation in true harmony, and is v/holly foreign 

 from the genius of our language. 



Thirdly. You will pleafe to confider, that if the author 

 of a regular ode has a bad ear, and is unfortunate in the choice 

 of the ftanza, his readers muft take it, for better for worfe, 

 through the whole poem, a grievance, to v.'hich the irregular 

 ode is not liable ; for there, if one ftanza fhould be unhappily 

 fancied, or inharmonious, we have a profped of being relieved, 

 and changing for the better in the. next ; perhaps too, the ear, 

 in an ode of any length, may feel itfelf cloyed with the unifor- 

 mity of a ftanza fo frequently repeated, and be relieved and gra- 

 tified by the various melody of the irregular ode. 



Fourthly. 



